What is Zen? by Norman Fischer

Author:Norman Fischer
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Shambhala Publications
Published: 2015-04-29T16:00:00+00:00

9

STAGES OF PRACTICE

What are the different stages of practice?

In my view, which comes from Dōgen and Suzuki Roshi, practice is continuous, and we aren’t getting anywhere other than just going on, with some joy and increasing appreciation. So there are no stages. In a profound sense, we are all beginners.

But we do have what you might call “stages” in commitment to practice. In our tradition these stages can be marked by rituals and empowerments, but the main thing is that we feel them internally. I resist the idea that people who are “serious” about their practice need to go through the normative rituals. I am always happy when an Everyday Zen practitioner feels as if it makes more sense to just keep on practicing, without benefit of any ritual or seemingly sanctioned status or stage.

Yet at the same time, our tradition does recognize and honor ritual as an important part of the transformative process. So when people choose to receive these rituals, as they go through a lifetime of practice, I am happy to participate with them and take a lot of joy in it.

The first such ritual is commonly called jukai, receiving the precepts. In our tradition we also call it zaike-tokudo, literally, “staying at home while entering the way.” In our groups we usually expect someone to practice with us steadily for about three years before they do this ritual, because for most people, even people experienced in other forms of Buddhism, it takes about three years to “join the family”—that is, to feel more or less integrated into the community and take to its particular way of understanding and its local customs. After about three years of practice, a person may ask me or one of the other teachers if he or she can receive the precepts. Usually we say yes. And we ask the person to begin to study the precepts (the sixteen bodhisattva precepts) by reading about them, listening to talks, discussing them with others, and, especially, by observing and reflecting on their life for a period of time, to see what the precepts, one by one, actually mean to them and what problems they might find in following the precepts.

After study goes on for a year or more, the student then asks to sew a rakusu, a small Buddhist robe that looks a little like a bib, a square cloth worn on the chest, suspended by straps hung from around the neck. This sewing practice, which is quite unexpected and unfamiliar for most people, is important in our tradition. The rakusu is considered a sacred garment embodying one’s commitment to the precepts, so sewing a rakusu is a ritual in itself. With each stitch you recite, “Namu kie butsu” (“I take refuge in Buddha”), the first precept, which stands for all sixteen precepts. So you are sewing your commitment into your rakusu.

After you are finished sewing, you are ready for the ceremony, in which, usually with a few other people, you vow to follow

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.